The Chic guitarist made the announcement on his official website with a new blog called “Walking on Planet C.”

Rodgers said he was diagnosed with cancer on Oct. 27.

“In an instant, everything in my happy-music universe imploded,” he wrote. “It was like Jaws was savagely eating me from the inside out. My biopsy showed that I had to make some important decisions… fast. After consulting with numerous doctors, I decided to have radical surgery to try and remove the cancer in its entirety.”

Rodgers noted that he only told a few people because he especially didn’t want to worry his family during the holidays.

“I did everything as usual – as best I could – until one day I couldn’t. My hand had sudden muscle loss and a number of stressful events followed.”

In another post Rodgers discussed taking daily four-mile walks to prepare for the surgery and subsequent therapy. He candidly wrote about the pain he felt when he told the crowd at his local diner that he had written the 1979 tune “We Are Family” and the diners looked at him like he was crazy.

“I’ve known everyone in this eatery for about twenty years – but none of them knew I co-wrote it. My eyes welled up with tears. Crazy. I know that people generally don’t know what songs composers write – but this was ‘We Are Family,’ written by Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers, both residents of this town. For some reason, I felt really hurt. Tears were now flowing…

“Cancer is horrifying. It makes you think a lot. My ex-partner passed away and most people don’t realize many songs they sing along with every day he did. Maybe, I was just afraid of dying and feeling sorry for myself – cancer also makes you do that. But my sadness was real. Cancer is a humiliating disease and I wanted to feel dignified about something. I wiped the tears from my eyes and told the diner’s staff that I wrote the song they were singing. I finished my coffee, smiled, hugged everybody and waved goodbye.”

Earlier today Rodgers acknowledged in a post on his Twitter page that “people keep asking me what type of cancer I had.” He then linked to “the 2nd part of my story” with a post that revealed his surgery took place on a cold January morning.

“They told me my cancer was high-grade. I had never heard of the Gleason Scale, the number that grades prostate cancer, prior to my diagnosis. My cancer sat at the head of the class.”

Rodgers said that weeks earlier he had lost muscle control and couldn’t hold a guitar pic during a Chic gig opening for Earth, Wind and Fire.

“By the morning of my surgery, death, which I had no control over – was a viable option if I couldn’t play guitar anymore,” he wrote.

Rodgers has promised to continue blogging over the next few days as he shares more about his journey recovering from cancer. 

To read more from Nile Rodgers, click here for his blog.

Click here for his Twitter page.